Historical inquiry/identification

I am trying to figure out any information about the type of gun pictured in this engraving (c.1831). The object is partially obscured but I'm hoping enough clues are still visible that you experts might be able to hazard a guess! If it helps, the engraving accompanied reports of 1831 slave rebellion in Southampton, Virginia.

I believe it is just a generic rendition of a muzzle loading percussion rifle .It doesn't represent any one make or model. It would be impossible to state that it is a so and so rifle made by so and so. Heck, from the drawing it might even be a shotgun or even a rubber band gun

We can't even say it is percussion; at that time it would probably have been a flintlock. But the others are right, it is just an artist's rendition of a gun. It is not intended to be an accurate drawing of a real gun any more than the "rifles" in the Beetle Bailey cartoons are intended to look like those actually used by the army.

At the time, I am sure the cartoonist's intent was to show the noble white man triumphing over the evil and bloodthirsty black leader of a slave revolt. A more modern caption might be, "Don't bring a short sword to a gunfight."

It appears to be a Springfield Model 1795 Flintlock musket Type II made at Springfield in 1809, converted to percussion in the 1830s, rebarreled in the 1850s, and restocked just before the Civil War (and it has a loose ramrod).

IF the revolt was a wide spread revolt to where the militia was called out; then they would most likely be carring Springfield muskets. Now the picture does show a sling on the gun to which tells me the artist was attempting to show a musket since most hunting long rifles did not have slings. As told above the artist was most likely painting a general impression of a muzzle loader with no type specific intended.

As said above, it is not a realistic rendition of a specific gun, But also notice the unrealistic way the gun is held, the man's trigger finger hanging on the back of the trigger guard. The artist obviosly knew nothing about guns or how one is held ready.

JimK so true. This is an anti-slave rendering. You will note the noble slave armed only with a knife. His head is high the slaver looks cowardly hiding behind his evil fowler. Their was a push at that time to arm slaves so they could take over the plantations. We all recall J Brown at Harper Ferry hoping to arm slaves from the U.S. armory and then Capt. Robert E Lee U.S. Army. The gun was only a prop.

You might be right, but my reading was the opposite; I think the cartoonist was showing the black man as evil, almost an animal, with the stalwart white man defending his home, tradition, and Southern womanhood. It would help to know where the cartoon came from. If a Northern paper or book, you may be right; if a Southern source, my view would be more likely.

In any case, that was a horrible time for the country and led to an even worse period.

You might be right, but my reading was the opposite; I think the cartoonist was showing the black man as evil, almost an animal, with the stalwart white man defending his home, tradition, and Southern womanhood. It would help to know where the cartoon came from. If a Northern paper or book, you may be right; if a Southern source, my view would be more likely.

In any case, that was a horrible time for the country and led to an even worse period.

Jim

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Jim--you most certainly are correct. The illustration accompanied a triumphant report in the Norfolk Herald of Virginia. These were certainly not "objective" reports; the illustrator, like the antebellum periodical journalists in the South, were certainly in the business of producing representations we might call racist.

I guess another way to state my original inquiry might have been, is this indeed a generic gun or is the illustrator trying to create "realistic" portrait right down to the details. The fact that the illustrator isn't interested in the latter suggests to me, as it has to Jim, that the symbolism of the piece is its most important function.